High Cotton: Analysis of Major Characters
"High Cotton: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate dynamics and relationships among a diverse cast of characters, centered around a narrator who is keenly aware of societal perceptions and determined to forge his own identity. The narrator's complex relationship with his grandfather Eustace, a well-educated yet failed businessman turned minister, highlights themes of family legacy and the weight of expectations. Aunt Clara, the narrator's light-skinned relative from Alabama, embodies the societal obsession with racial identity and bloodlines, adding another layer of complexity to the narrative.
Uncle Castor, a once-celebrated jazz musician, represents the struggles faced by artists and the impact of difficult circumstances on family ties. The narrator's encounters with Jesse, a security guard, and Jeanette, an alcoholic singer, extend his journey into Harlem, revealing hidden facets of the city and its cultural richness. Additionally, the presence of Djuna Barnes, a historical literary figure, adds depth to the exploration of artistic decline and the passage of time. Through these characters, the work delves into themes of race, identity, and the personal histories that shape individual perspectives.
High Cotton: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Darryl Pinckney
First published: 1992
Genre: Novel
Locale: Indianapolis, Indiana; New York City; the American South; London, England; and Paris, France
Plot: Bildungsroman
Time: The early 1960's through the end of the 1980's
The narrator, who is based on the author. An astute observer of others, the narrator is determined to escape any pigeonhole, racial or other, into which others might be tempted to place him.
Grandfather Eustace, a graduate of Brown and Harvard who, after several business failures, becomes a minister of the Congregational church. He is the member of the narrator's family with whom the narrator has the most complex and intense relationship.
Aunt Clara, who lives in Opelika, Alabama. She is actually the narrator's mother's aunt. She is light-skinned, or “high yellow,” and obsessed with blood mixture.
Uncle Castor, a jazz musician, who played with Noble Sissle. He has fallen on such hard times that he must depend on the hospitality of the narrator's family.
Jesse, a security guard at Columbia University. He guides the narrator to parts of Harlem that are outside the normal itinerary of Columbia students.
Jeanette, an alcoholic singer the narrator comes to know in Harlem.
Djuna Barnes, an actual historical figure who wrote Nightwood (1936), one of the acknowledged masterpieces of American literary modernism. By the time the narrator works for her as a handyman, that accomplishment is far in the past.
Bargetta, who, like the narrator, is a member of the Also Chosen. He is the narrator's friend at college and his guide to Paris.